A report on how the school system in Loudoun County, Virginia, handled two sexual assault cases remains under wraps, but a new petition filed by an activist group is seeking its release.
Ian Prior with Fight for Schools said in a news release Monday that his group has sent Loudoun County Public Schools a Petition for Mandamus and Injunction in Loudoun County Circuit Court. It is requesting that the results of an independent review of how allegations of sexual assault were handled at two high schools be released to the public.
“If Loudoun County Public Schools wants to spend taxpayer money to defend its continued defiance of transparency and accountability, then we will fight to force the issue and bring the truth to light,” Prior said.
Last year, a teenager sexually assaulted two fellow high school students, one at Stone Bridge and another at Broad Run, leading Loudoun County Public Schools to commission an independent review. The 15-year-old was convicted of both assaults and is on supervised probation in a locked juvenile treatment facility until his 18th birthday.
The school system hired Blankingship & Keith PC in November to conduct the report.
Once the report was finished, the school system said in January it would not disclose its findings to the public. An LCPS spokesman said at the time that due to laws on attorney-client privilege and personnel information concerning identifiable individuals, the report would not released.
However, Prior said the group is taking the legal action because “without transparency there can be no accountability.”
“Loudoun County Public Schools misled the community when it claimed that it hired Blankingship and Keith on October 28, 2021 to do an independent review of how LCPS handled the two sexual assaults last year,” Prior said.
“We have repeatedly called for the release of the results of the so-called independent review, with appropriate redactions for privacy, only to watch LCPS claim that the review was actually nothing more than legal advice protected by attorney-client privilege.”
Fight for Schools has also called on state leaders to remove schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler from his job.
Loudoun County Public Schools does not comment on pending legal matters.
